Hello, I've just jumped off the Empire State Building - Reading Skills

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

Hello, I've just jumped off the Empire State Building

Agenda

Lesson goals

Discussion 

Prediction

Reading 

Answering questions about the text

Lesson goals achieved?

Lesson goals

At the end of today's lesson learners can....

- predict what a text will be about using limited information

- discuss the text in pairs

- analyse the text for specific information

- read and understand a text enough to be able to answer questions about this text.

Read the article - 3 minutes

Were your predictions correct?

Jim Burney, aged 24, was out of work and out of money and all alone in New York over Christmas.  He decided to kill himself by jumping off the Empire State Building.

  

  He took the lift to the top floor, the 86th, where he held on to the safety fence for a moment.  He said a quick prayer, then threw himself off and fell towards the hundreds of cars moving along Fifth Avenue, over 1,000 feet below.

  When he woke up half an hour later he found himself on a narrow ledge on the 85th floor, outside the offices of a television station, where the strong wind had blown him.  The young man was so relieved that he decided to give up the idea of committing suicide. 

  He knocked on a window of a the offices and crawled in to safety.  Mike Wilson was on duty there at the time.  'I could believe my eyes', he said. 'It's not often you see someone coming in through the window of the 85th floor, I poured myself a stiff drink, and one for Jim too.'

  Jim Burney himself not only survived.  He had a great Christmas - he got a lot of invitations to Christmas dinner!

Discuss in pairs and think of explanations for the mans survival.....

Here is the headline from a short newspaper article about a man who jumped off the Empire State Building, one of the highest building in New York:

Hello, I've just jumped off the Empire State Building

How could someone who has just jumped off the Empire State Building possibly be alive to tell the tale?  Work in pairs to think of as many explanations as you can.  You have 4 minutes.

Here are some words and phrases taken from the article.  They appear in the same order here as in the article

All alone in New York – decided to kill himself - the 86th floor - held on to the safety fence -over 1,000 feet below –a narrow ledge - offices of a television station –the strong wind  –poured myself a stiff drink –had a great Christmas 

Work in your pairs to decide what happened.  Try to include information from as many of the clues as possible. You have 5 minutes.

Why did Jim Burney want to kill himself?

Which story did he jump from?

What saved Jim's life and caused him to land on the narrow ledge?

What is a stiff drink?

What would your reaction have been if you were on duty at the time instead of Mike Wilson?

Do you think Jim Burns is happy he survived? Why/Why not?

Name one thing you learned today?

Lesson goals achieved

At the end of today's lesson learners can....

- predict what a text will be about using limited information

- discuss the text in pairs

- analyse the text for specific information

- read and understand a text enough to be able to answer questions about this text.